Saturday, July 10, 2010

Sabine Rose is fitting in well at her new school-- friends with the cheerleaders, confidante of the charming editor of the school paper, and dating the sweetest guy in school. She can almost forget the tragic circumstances that made her an outcast at her old school and ended up with her moving in with her eccentric grandmother, a psychic matchmaker named Nona. But Sabine swears that she didn't inherit her grandmother's abilities-- a facade that's hard to keep up once the visions of the death of a classmate with a dragonfly tattoo begin...

Don't Die, Dragonfly is a thrilling first installment of a series that I am eager to read more of. It's a book that deals with the most frightening burden of power: social ostracism. Sabine's struggles to both own her powers and save her classmate's life are skillfully intertwined as she must learn to trust others with her secret in order to do what's right.

Singleton also sets up plenty of teasers for future installments, from the mysterious Dominic who moves into Nona's barn at the beginning of the story and makes cryptic intimations about the future of Sabine's family, to the effect of her new alliances on her old friendships and her new boyfriend. And her strained relationship with her mother not only longs for resolution, but is completely relatable to anyone who has ever been a teenager. I can't wait to read more-- including the final book, Magician's Muse, out in October!

(By the way, if the plot reminds you of Blue is for Nightmares, you're not alone. But whether you love or hate those books, you should give Dragonfly a try, because the two books/series are plenty different!) You can read the first two chapters here.

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